Pelosi’s myrmidons at work:
Some Democratic senators are calling for an investigation after learning Congress wasn’t briefed about an covert CIA counterterrorism program allegedly ordered to be kept secret by former Vice President Dick Cheney.
CIA Director Leon Panetta briefed Congress about the still classified program on June 24, a day after learning about it and immediately canceling it. Intelligence sources noted that the program never got off the ground and wasn’t instituted.
Nonetheless, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told “FOX News Sunday” that Congress should have been informed about the eight-year program sooner so that it could have oversight of the spy agency’s actions.
“This is a big problem, because the law is very clear,” Feinstein said. “And I understand the need of the day, which was when America was in shock, when we had been hit in a way we’d never contemplated, where we had massive loss of life, where there was a major effort to be able to respond.
“I think you weaken your case when you go outside of the law. And I think that if the Intelligence Committees had been briefed, they could have watched the program. They could have asked for regular reports on the program. They could have made judgments about the program as it went along. That was not the case because we were kept in the dark. That’s something that should never, ever happen again,” Feinstein added.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, called the failure to inform Congress “illegal.”
“We have a system of checks and balances. There is accountability in our Constitution. The executive branch can not create these kind of programs … and leave Congress in the dark. (It) is not only inappropriate, it is illegal.”
A source at the CIA told FOX News that “it seems reasonable” that any action to withhold information on a classified program of this nature would have to come from someone as senior as Cheney. The source also suggested the leak came directly from Capitol Hill.
……Panetta’s June 24 briefing to lawmakers led Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee to demand the CIA director retract his May 15 claim that the CIA never lied or misled Congress, a remark Panetta made in May after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA of lying to her about the now-defunct enhanced interrogation program.
Republican lawmakers suggested that the recent barrage of complaints about congressional oversight is an attempt to divert attention from Pelosi’s accusation.
“This, of course, comes on the heels of a statement — unproven, by the way — of Speaker Pelosi that the CIA had lied to her about enhanced interrogation techniques, and this looks to me suspiciously like an attempt to provide political cover to her and others,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, adding that he thinks Congress should have been briefed about any new CIA programs.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/12/democrats-probe-canceled-cia-program-reviewed-congress/
Of course Senator Cornyn is correct. This is another tactic on the part of Pelosi and her loyalists to draw attention from the fact that she lied about not being briefed by the CIA on enhanced interrogations.
Her name was among those listed as an attendee of the briefings as well as having an oversight role.
She can’t lie her way out of this one, so she conducts a ‘why weren’t we briefed on a non-existent program’ blamefest.
Dick Durbin is a fat one to talk about Constitutional “acountability” and what is “illegal”. He has yet to be held accountable for—as revealed by the Rod Blagojevich FBI tapes—his offer to broker a deal for the former governor’s vacant seat in exchange for an allocation of federal money, (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98I3UO00&show_article=1) or his cashing in on insider trading.
(http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/13/durbin-cashed-out-on-inside-information-sun-times/)
Oh and by the way, guess what the super-secret cancelled program involved? The killing/capture of Al Qadea operatives. You know, the shit we’re supposed to do in time of war.
A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said CIA Director Panetta, above, told lawmakers Vice President Cheney ordered information be withheld from Congress.
The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn’t clear, and the CIA won’t comment on its substance. According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement, known as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts. The initiative hadn’t become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124736381913627661.html
It’s not just politics as usual in D.C. Pelosi’s carving her inititials into history by venting her hatred of (conservative) patriotism through some very toxic behavior. All of our enemies, Islamofascist in particular, are laughing their asses off at this obscene display of democrat partisan squabbling. They read about this bullshit and have a field day using it as fodder for jihadist propaganda videos. Democrats, if they considered themselves loyal Americans, would do everything in their power to help protect and shield this country against a divisive spectacle such as this. But they’re more sympathetic toward terrorist POWs than they are counter-terrorism measures; which is precisely why they should be subjected to the same requirements as those with security clearances, or forbidden to have access.
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